Ruddock frustrated at ref justice

Mike Ruddock insisted his side should have claimed victory over Newcastle Falcons after his Warriors were controversially disallowed three tries at Kingston Park.

Wing wonders Rico Gear and Miles Benjamin scored tries for Warriors as Newcastle scored all their points through the boot of Jonny Wilkinson.

But Director of Rugby Ruddock was left frustrated as Aleki Lutui (twice) and Thinus Delport were denied scores that would have given his team a first win of the Guinness Premiership season.

"We are very disappointed but I am proud of my players," he said. "I thought we were fantastic, we scored two tries which were very well taken and had three potential scores chalked off.

"I have asked the players involved and they felt they had scored. Aleki said on the first occasion he got the ball down and was then flipped over, in the second half he definitely got the ball over the line.

"Thinus races over in the second half but it is called back for a forward pass which we felt was a very big call against us. I haven't seen the replays but we felt we scored them."

The result saw Warriors move two points away from Leeds Carnegie at the bottom of the table as they took a losing bonus point for a third successive league game.

And Ruddock refused to be critical of his side after they were just edge out by Wikinson's late heroics.

"There are 12 games to go and if we play the way we did against Newcastle we will score points and climb away from the foot of the table," he said. "Our defence was excellent but we have got to stop giving away too many penalties.

"When you look at the quality in our game and the way we played in attack and defence we look a real threat.

"I don't want to take anything away from Newcastle, I admire the way they play, but ultimately we dealt with them.

"We edged the game and were the better team on the day, even if that was not shown on the scoreboard. We looked like a top half team and, if we cut out the penalties, the rest of our game looks in good shape.

"I think everyone who saw that thought we deserved more, we had hoped to start 2008 with a win but we are very close and the boys will become stronger for this experience."